Devotion: One Step Back, Two Steps Forward

I love stories. I particularly love the stories of the Bible’s Old Testament. During our worship time at the office where I work, we are reflecting on the life of David. His life reads like a contemporary drama series, including wrongful persecution, a king’s abuse of power, and thrilling pursuits. The stories of the Bible are powerful, but God’s word contains passages and individual verses, too, for life application. As much as I appreciate the images Biblical stories offer, several verses stand out to me because of their common style of creating an overlap—one step back and two steps forward.

Creating an Overlap

The first verse is a well-known promise that speaks to us as much as it did the disciples. It is John 14:2-3 which reads: In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.

In John 14:2-3, Jesus tells the disciples that he will prepare a place for them. Then he assures them that if he goes to prepare a place for them, he will come back to receive them to live with him. Jesus uses almost the same wording, “I go to prepare a place for you”, in these verses.

The second group of verses contains a series of repetitions. The technique of stepping back to move forward is very evident: “And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.”

In 2 Peter 1:5-7, Peter uses repetition to emphasize his message of faith and knowledge. Each line repeats the previous word before moving forward, for example, “add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge”. Repetition deepens the impression and builds on the previous virtue in a steady progression to the ultimate God-like quality, love. Peter reminds us of the last quality before introducing the next in this passage. In both passages, the message is made clear through an overlap.

Benefits of Overlaps

Is there room for overlap in our writing lives? Do we need a completely original idea before we begin to write?

Sometimes, I hesitate or dismiss a writing idea because an author has already written about a topic I am considering. Why? Writing is full of overlaps. For example, a quick search on devotional books for women about grace gave 634,000 results. A search in women of the Bible gave 574,000 results. If I want to learn how to write for social media, the search got about 11 million hits. Solomon’s observance that there is nothing new under the sun is conceivable in the literary environment. Does this mean we should abandon divine writing prompts because the topic has already been written about? I imagine Paul would respond, “God forbid.”

For example, even if you and I wrote books about the gift of grace, they would differ. They could not be the same. Our experiences vary as much as our thumbprints. Every disappointment teaches me more about grace. Each setback provides an opportunity to move forward with renewed determination and strength. The joys we experience overflow into new ideas or fuel interest in reviving abandoned projects.

Using Setbacks to Move Forward

Perhaps a step backward leads to finding a mentor who steers us in a direction we wouldn’t have considered. Maybe the discovery of a spiritual gift awaits when we step back. Taking one step back and two steps forward makes me think of Joseph. He was the favored son of a wealthy man. He had a secure future ahead of him until his brothers changed the trajectory of his life. Enslaved, humbled, humiliated, and imprisoned, we can agree his footprints seemed to move many steps backward, all the way to the bottom of a dark pit (Genesis 37:24). Through the turmoil of his time in Egypt, God changed his testimony from despair to one of triumph (Genesis 45:5, 7-8).

Along the writing journey, there are setbacks. No matter how many times we fall one step back to go two steps forward, may we remember that God is always in the journey, leading us through faith to His perfect love.